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Franklin Templeton Investments has added four new ETFs to its line-up of passively managed country and regional funds, introducing exposures to equities listed in India, Russia, Asia Pacific ex-Japan, and Switzerland. Patrick O’Connor, head of global ETFs at Franklin Templeton Investments, said, “Our suite of passive country- and region-specific ETFs has been well received in the marketplace, as clients look for low-cost vehicles that can be used to access different exposures for their portfolios or solutions capabilities.”

Smart beta strategies are becoming a growing part of the asset allocation schemes of financial advisors and wealth managers, according to a survey from index provider FTSE Russell. Rolf Agather, managing director of North America research at FTSE Russell, said, “The results of our second smart beta advisor survey show that there is continued and growing popularity of smart beta strategies among retail advisors. There is also a significant opportunity for growth in the wealth market but more education is needed.”

BNP Paribas Asset Management has cross-listed four ETFs on SIX Swiss Exchange. Three provide smart beta exposure to European and US-listed equities, and the other to a diversified portfolio of real estate companies and real estate investment trusts (REITs) listed in eurozone countries.

FTSE Russell has expanded its FTSE Italia Index Series with the launch of the FTSE Italia Brands Index, comprising Italian companies operating in the consumer goods and services sector that are considered best-in-class with regards to creativity, excellence, intuition and innovation.

FTSE Russell has launched the FTSE4Good TIP Taiwan ESG Index, developed in partnership with Taiwan Stock Exchange. The index provides a reference for the performance of Taiwan-listed firms with high ESG scores, according to the FTSE4Good rating methodology.

ETFs that provide exposure to Vietnam-listed equities, such as the db x-trackers FTSE Vietnam UCITS ETF (XFVT GR), have displayed remarkable performance recently, rising nearly 30% between the start of August and 28 November, as the country’s stock market has soared.

FTSE Russell, one of the biggest players in the ETF indexing space, has announced the expansion of its environmental, social and governance (ESG) equity index offering with the launch of the FTSE Global Climate Index Series and the FTSE ESG Index Series.

ETF flows have started to chase the fund fee cuts that have become a staple of the industry in recent months, according to new research released by FactSet. The report comes in the wake of numerous announcements in the last few months of fee reductions and new ultra-low-cost funds from major players, including Charles Schwab, State Street Global Advisors, Franklin Templeton, Deutsche Asset Management and Invesco PowerShares.

State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) has changed the underlying indices for three of its core US equity ETFs – those providing exposure to the large-cap, small-cap, and total-cap segments of the market – by dropping incumbent index provider FTSE Russell in favour of SSGA in-house indices, calculated by NYSE.